Theme Song Saturday (46)

Welcome to Theme Song Saturdays, a new weekly meme, hosted by yours truly, in which we share our love of music and books! Since I love books and music, this meme is for fun to try to incorporate those two loves! Whenever I read a book, a certain song -- kind of like a soundtrack or theme song -- plays through my head.

Want to know how to play? Head over to the Theme Song Saturday introduction post to read the rules and get the code.

I have two songs this week:

 

 Glycerine by Bush and Gone Away by The Offspring are my two picks this week.  These songs remind me of the relationship between Marcus and Maggie.  To me, they are more songs of longing and how Marcus might/does feel toward Maggie.  Her memory loss tore her away from him.  Even though she is physically there, she is still gone.

What's yours?  Leave a link in the comments to your post ^_^

Late Night Book Review — Claimed by the Wolf

Theme Song Saturday (45)

Welcome to Theme Song Saturdays, a new weekly meme, hosted by yours truly, in which we share our love of music and books! Since I love books and music, this meme is for fun to try to incorporate those two loves! Whenever I read a book, a certain song -- kind of like a soundtrack or theme song -- plays through my head.

Want to know how to play? Head over to the Theme Song Saturday introduction post to read the rules and get the code.

Here's my pick this week:

 

Mad World by Tears for Fears is the song that came to mind while reading this book. The concept of time travel made me think of Donnie Darko, which reminded me of the cover of Mad World on the soundtrack.  In some ways, this song actually does fit.  When Maggie first sees Marcus, I could easily hear this song playing in the background. 

What's yours?  Leave a link in the comments to your post ^_^

Book Review — Living Dead in Dallas

Title:  Living Dead in Dallas
Author:  Charlaine Harris
Genre:  Urban fantasy
Published:  March 2002
Publisher:  Ace Books
Rating:

"Sookie Stackhouse likes living in Bon Temps, Louisiana, and she likes working as a cocktail waitress at Merlotte's. But she is having a streak of bad luck. First her co-worker is killed, and no one seems to care. Then she comes face-to-face with a beastly creature which gives her a painful and poisonous lashing. Enter the vampires, who graciously suck the poison from her veins (like they didn't enjoy it).

"The point is: the vampires saved her life. So when one of her bloodsuckers asks for a favour, she obliges-and soon Sookie's in Dallas, using her telepathic skills to search for a missing vampire. She's supposed to interview certain humans involved, but she makes one condition: the vampires must promise to behave, and let the humans go unharmed. But that's easier than done, and all it takes is one delicious blonde and one small mistake for things to turn deadly . . ."

~ Goodreads

Thoughts:  The only reason this book didn't sit on my shelves after reading Dead Until Dark was the fact that it was in audio book format.  Plus, listening to books while running on the treadmill and lifting weights makes the time go faster.  However, I get rather strange looks when I snort at the dialogue and Sookie's rather ludicrous naïveté/actions.

Honestly, after the disappointment of the first book, I wasn't expecting much with this one.  However, it ended up catching my interest a little more than the first.  Since I have been sick and not going to the gym, it took me a lot longer to get through this book.  And, if I had sat down with it for an extended time, I might have different things to say about it.

For me, the book felt as though it was all over the place.  Sookie meets the maenad briefly in the beginning of the book and receives nasty, poisoned lashings as a message for Eric.  Instead of following that a little more, Harris rushes Sookie and Bill off to Dallas to deal with a kidnapped vampire.  After playing around in Dallas, she comes back to discover the sex club.  I felt that, if done correctly, Harris could have made a whole book on the occurrences in Dallas.  Honestly, she could have done the same with the maenad storyline.  With the switching back and forth, it felt as though there wasn't a complete story.  The fact that the sex club was rather sinister and involved important people was rather interesting, and I would have loved to see it play out.  Further, I couldn't understand the point of having the maenad.  The way Harris introduced her, it felt as though she was going to play a larger role.  As it is, she was just kind of a side character that didn't have too much importance.

The dialogue between Bill and Sookie was still pretty canned and campy.  There was still no real character development of the two, and they remained rather one dimensional.  Plus, their relationship just annoys me.  It seems to be based on sex and nothing else.  I would like a little more substance between them.  And, I'm sorry to say this, I don't like Sookie.

The saving grace was Eric.  I loved that he had more time in the book, and the audience was able to see a different side to his personality.  When he arrived in Lycra, I roared while I was shoveling my driveway!  Even from the HBO series, it is obvious that he has a lot more depth than we have yet to be shown.  Plus, a Viking will always get me excited!  Unfortunately, the narrator for the audio book slipped more into a Transylvanian accent, and I wanted to scream on multiple occasions!  

While this book had it's issues, it shows that they are getting better.  According to a close friend, the series gets progressively better and Eric has a much larger role.  So, with all of that in mind, I will continue to read the books.

Current Progress:

2/50 books

Book Review — The Bone Collector

Title:  The Bone Collector
Author:  Jeffery Deaver
Genre:  Fiction, mystery
Pages:  Hardback, 418
Published:  1997
Publisher:  Penguin Group
ISBN:  0-670-86871-X
Opening Lines:  "She wanted only to sleep."
Rating:

"Lincoln Rhyme, ex-head of NYPD forensics, was the nation's foremost criminalist, the man who could work a crim scene and come away with a perfect profile of the killer, frozen in time. Now, Lincoln is frozen in place—permanently. An accident on the job left him a quadriplegic who can move just one finger, a great mind strapped to his bed, mulish and sarcastic, hiding from a life he no longer wants to live.

"Until he sees the crime-scene report about a corpse found buried on a deserted West Side railroad track, its bloody hand rising from the dirt. It belonged to a man who got into a cab at the airport and never got out. Reluctantly, Lincoln Rhyme abandons retirement to track down a killer whose ingenious clues hold the secret to saving his victims—if Rhyme can decipher them in time.

"The search leads him to the Bone Collector, whose obsession with old New York colors every scrap of evidence he leaves for Rhyme and his new partner, Amelia Sachs, whom he drafts as his arms and legs. But she's never worked a crime scene in her life—and he can only whisper in her ear as she does the exacting work he lvoed more than anything else."

~ Jacket copy

Thoughts:  On my seventeenth birthday, my parents (my mother was rather reluctant) took me to see The Bone Collector.  My mother sat through the whole movie with her hands covering her eyes, and my father and I were riveted.  I loved the movie.  I loved the combination of Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.  However, I kind of lost track of the movie.  When HBO started airing it this past December, I decided to read the book.  Luckily, the local library happened to have a copy of the book!  Unfortunately, since I've been battling a nasty virus, it has taken me a long time to actually finish the book.

While walking her last beat, dispatch sends Amelia Sachs to the scene of a supposed crime.  What she finds is a mutilated hand rising from the ground.  Falling back on her academy training, she immediately seals of the area in hopes of preserving the scene and keeping any physical evidence intact.  Since there is a UN conference in NYC, her boss is quick criticize her actions and dismiss her concerns.  However, once the case is brought to retired Lincoln Rhyme, her quick thinking brings her to the forefront of his mind.  And, even though she is a beat cop about to be transferred to Publication Relations, Rhyme wants her to be his arms and legs while walking the grid as they chase an unsub that could be a serial killer.

I loved the character development in the book.  With little things like Amelia's love of fast cars and her nervous habit of picking at her fingers, he was able to make the character believable and three dimensional.  Further, it was neat to see how Rhyme and Amelia were able to grow through the book, and, in some ways, become different/better people.  After suffering from a debilitating accident, Rhyme was struggling with his new role and had a hard time finding a place in his life.  Through the work on the case and his connection with Amelia, he was able to recapture some semblance of life.  It was very neat to see him go through the change.  The way it was written, as a reader, I felt much closer to the character.

The law enforcement jargon was awesome!  When they talked about running prints and car plates through NCIC, I got excited.  After working emergency dispatch for awhile, it was nice to be able recognize some of the lingo and know what they were talking about.  That being said, however, a lot of the things were never fully explained and could easily cause confusion.  Even though Deaver had a lexicon in the back of the book, I felt he didn't do a good job having entries in it to explain all of the things he was discussing through the course of the novel.

The novel was suspenseful and kept me on the edge of my seat.  Several times I found myself staying up way too late reading "just one more page."  If you're reading this because of the movie, they are different.  Some of the crimes are similar, but there are a lot that were left out of the movie.  The motivation behind the killings is not the same, Amelia has a different last name and looks different, and so on.  That being said, I still loved the book!

Current Pages: 418
Current Progress:

1/50 books

Theme Song Saturday (44)

Welcome to Theme Song Saturdays, a new weekly meme, hosted by yours truly, in which we share our love of music and books! Since I love books and music, this meme is for fun to try to incorporate those two loves! Whenever I read a book, a certain song -- kind of like a soundtrack or theme song -- plays through my head.

Want to know how to play? Head over to the Theme Song Saturday introduction post to read the rules and get the code.

Here's my pick this week:

The Man Who Sold the World covered by Nirvana kind of mirrors my thoughts about Lincoln Rhyme.  He is completely at odds with who he is now and who he was.  Even though he is able to put some things aside and concentrate on the case in front of him, his demons are still lurking in the shadows.  And, at some level, it feels as though he thinks of the man he was as being dead.  It is almost like he thinks they cannot coexist.  However, when you see him seamlessly running the case, the audience sees that the man Rhyme was is still very much there.  

What's yours?  Leave a link in the comments to your post ^_^

Book Beginnings

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader. Every Friday, we share the first sentence (or more) of the book we are currently reading. Be sure to share your initial thoughts and impressions!

Here's mine:

"She wanted only to sleep.
"The plane had touched down two hours late and there'd been a marathon wait for the luggage."

The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver

My initial thought was, I feel your pain!  Aside from feeling like a sardine, always ending up with the person in front of me in my lap, and major back pain from the horrible seats/cramped environment, waiting for my luggage is one of the worst parts of flying.  You are almost always guaranteed a twenty minute wait surrounded by people who tend to be assholes.  Come on, people, I know the plane was crowded, I know you have places to be, but please don't body slam/check me to get your luggage!  And, yes, that happens at least once whenever I fly . . .